In its ideal form, reggae is life-affirming, self-aware, and socially conscious. Yet all too often, the genre finds itself in a state of slack. Who better to tighten it up than the all-purpose Screwdriver? Dalton Lindo accepts growth and change but won’t allow anything to overshadow the religious fervor at…

Nothing D.H. Peligro says sounds convincing. He’s afraid of each question, perhaps worried that he’ll come up empty-handed when asked, “Why?” Why did he help rob the grave of the dead Dead Kennedys, America’s best-loved primordial punks, after a 19-month legal battle during which singer Jello Biafra and his breakaway…

Nursing a lingering cold that’s rendered him “somewhat incoherent,” Adam Goren rests on the counter at a Philadelphia deli and waits for someone to make a hoagie for him. “Thanks for being interested in what I do,” he sniffles politely to the reporter on the other end of his cell…

So this is odd, the painful realization that all has gone wrong/And nobody cares at all,” sighs Chris Carrabba. “And nobody cares at all,” answers the gentle children’s choir of the crowd. What the hell? Seven hundred fans have arrived at Millenium, a dance club in Pompano Beach — on…

The makeup of Miami’s jam-fusion band Outdance is a microcosm of South Florida itself: Tom Korba, who plays the Chapman Stick, is a transplanted New Yorker. Drummer Raul Ramirez was born in Puerto Rico. Guitarist Josh Sonntag grew up in Cancún. Percussionist Sean Dibble is a Miami-Dade County native. But…

Thickest cranium in rock? Probably Martin Atkins, former drummer for Public Image Ltd., now de facto head of the industrial-rock conglomerate Pigface. Who else would devote insane amounts of time, money, and energy to industrial music — a subgenre that had its day bathing in the money hydrant during the…

South Florida is starving for reggae music. Given our proximity to Jamaica, reggae bands should find rich fields of West Indian immigrants within which to flourish. Aside from stumbling upon stacks of old roots records played by Lauderhill patty-shop proprietors or late-night public-radio retro Rastafarians, however, we’re infected with the…

I don’t want to be known as Cancer Boy for the rest of my life,” sighs Eric Alexandrakis. “You know, “That musical cancer guy.’ But it is a marketable thing.” Alexandrakis, a Miami-based multi-instrumentalist who produces homemade pop songs in relative isolation, doesn’t make his bouts with Hodgkin’s disease the…

As spinoffs go, Tom Tom Club came with a remarkable schematic for success. Jettisoning the intellectual elitism that had a grip on their full-time group, Talking Heads, drummer Chris Frantz and his wife, bassist Tina Weymouth, founded their side project on the premise of funky, beachcombing fun. It worked, too:…

To most of us, “weird sounds from Boca Raton” means diamonds caught in a disposal or wheezing geriatrics struggling with groceries. And that stereotype is unlikely to change soon. Finding something edgy and hip in this subculturally deprived suburb is about as likely as finding bean sprouts on a Big…

When I set up a phone interview with Mark Eitzel, the last thing I expected to hear were Britney Spears jokes. The singer-songwriter’s work with American Music Club and on subsequent solo albums suggests a despondent, dreary soul. Although underground-music mavens have anointed him one of the nation’s greatest living…

For U2’s Elevation Tour 2001, kicked off last month with two shows at the National Car Rental Center, Willie Williams designed the most exquisite set in the history of arena rock. So artfully spare that there were no obstructed views from any of the seats surrounding the stage, the production…

Woe unto the lowly melodica. Why must it be consigned to the Fisher-Price page in the annals of great instruments? I can handle the nicknames: The pocket piano, toot-flute, blow accordion, wind piano, melodeon, melodyhorn, pianaca, and hooter all offend me not. But it still is shocking — shocking! –…

Whew! Florida musicians are pumping out product faster than New Times techs can take ’em for test runs. Blame it on the rock-bottom prices on CD burners — even small pets and stuffed animals can record an album nowadays. Here’s the latest assortment to come through our transom, compiled for…

Al Galvez has a plan. The leader of Miami’s dreamy acoustic trio A Kite Is a Victim not only resides at the center of his own little music-business ecosystem, he also has managed to tap into the nationwide network of the indie-rock cognoscenti. He has made friends, influenced people, and…

It’s only 9:00 a.m., but Al Sparhawk is wide awake. Such is life when you’re the father of a six-month-old. As young Hollis Mae Sparhawk lets out an exuberant squawk and her dad gushes on and on about the joys of fatherhood, it’s clear the elder Sparhawk is no ordinary…

Someone somewhere said something about tragedy being an opportunity,” remarks Ulysses Perez, drummer for Miami trio A Kite Is a Victim. It’s not that the band’s melancholy songs take listeners on a suicidal spiral or that its members lead particularly dismal lives. But the group actually thrives on living on…

Whereas most drum and bass acts are identifiable by a signature sound (Goldie, LTJ Bukem, and the like), Spring Heel Jack doesn’t really have one, which makes its music all the more interesting. The duo’s inventiveness may be a result of pedigree: When he’s not with Spring Heel Jack, John…

Six years ago, when the band known as Ed Matus’ Struggle (EMS) settled on its curious moniker, the whole thing felt like a joke. “There’s a lot of cheesy names out there,” notes guitarist Juan Montoya. “So we just named ourselves after someone we knew.” The real Ed Matus, another…

Begin with a bouillabaisse of Zappa, Beefheart, and the Residents, add a liberal dose of Spike Jones’s comedy, and then throw in the best bits from sound-effects records you’ve borrowed from the library. That’s the recipe for entertainment — Mister Entertainment to you. Mr. Entertainment is Steve Toth, who’s prepared…

Can’t we all just get along? Not if you look to the demise of Veruca Salt, which went down in flames two years ago after singer/guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post had a major falling out. The band scored big with its 1994 debut, American Thighs, and seemed destined to…

Glenn Danzig is a living, breathing cartoon character. No, really, just take a look at the cover of the new Danzig album, which pictures the singer emerging from a bog like the comic book character the Swamp Thing. Inch-deep third-degree burns scar his massive biceps. “Yeah, I’ve got 666 burned…